GSC 03549-02811 (sometimes referred to as Kepler-1, or either TrES-2A or TrES-2 parent star in reference to its

exoplanet An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first confirmed detection of an exoplanet was in 1992 around a pulsar, and the first detection around a main-sequence star was in 1995. A different planet, first det ...

TrES-2b TrES-2b (also known as Kepler-1b or GSC 03549-02811b) is an exoplanet, extrasolar planet orbiting the star GSC 03549-02811 located 750 light years away from the Solar System. The planet was identified in 2011 as the darkest known exoplanet, reflec ...

) is a

binary star A binary star or binary star system is a system of two stars that are gravitationally bound to and in orbit around each other. Binary stars in the night sky that are seen as a single object to the naked eye are often resolved as separate stars us ...

system containing a G-type

main-sequence In astronomy, the main sequence is a classification of stars which appear on plots of stellar color versus brightness as a continuous and distinctive band. Stars on this band are known as main-sequence stars or dwarf stars, and positions of star ...

star A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by Self-gravitation, self-gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sk ...

similar to the

Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...

. This star is located approximately 704

light-year A light-year, alternatively spelled light year (ly or lyr), is a unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equal to exactly , which is approximately 9.46 trillion km or 5.88 trillion mi. As defined by the International Astr ...

s away in the

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The first constellati ...

of Draco. The

apparent magnitude Apparent magnitude () is a measure of the Irradiance, brightness of a star, astronomical object or other celestial objects like artificial satellites. Its value depends on its intrinsic luminosity, its distance, and any extinction (astronomy), ...

of this star is 11.41, which means it is not visible to the

naked eye Naked eye, also called bare eye or unaided eye, is the practice of engaging in visual perception unaided by a magnification, magnifying, Optical telescope#Light-gathering power, light-collecting optical instrument, such as a telescope or microsc ...

but can be seen with a medium-sized

amateur telescope Amateur telescope making is the activity of building telescopes as a hobby, as opposed to being a paid professional. Amateur telescope makers (sometimes called ATMs) build their instruments for personal enjoyment of a technical challenge, as a wa ...

on a clear dark night. The age of this star is about 5 billion years.

Nomenclature

The designation GSC 03549-02811 comes from the

Guide Star Catalog The Guide Star Catalog (GSC), also known as the ''Hubble Space Telescope, Guide Catalog'' (''HSTGC''), is a star catalog compiled to support the Hubble Space Telescope with targeting off-axis stars. GSC-I contained approximately 20,000,000 stars w ...

. The star is often called TrES-2, in reference to its planet discovered by the Trans-Atlantic Exoplanet Survey (TrES). The discovery paper and the

SIMBAD SIMBAD (the Set of Identifications, Measurements and Bibliography for Astronomical Data) is an astronomy, astronomical database of objects beyond the Solar System. It is maintained by the Centre de données astronomiques de Strasbourg (CDS), Fr ...

database use this designation for the planet itself, but other sources call the star TrES-2 (or TrES-2A) and the planet TrES-2b, following the standard exoplanet naming convention. In keeping with the planet being component b, the companion star is designated TrES-2C, although it is also designated Kepler-1B. The planet was also observed by the

Kepler space telescope The Kepler space telescope is a defunct space telescope launched by NASA in 2009 to discover Earth-sized planets orbiting other stars. Named after astronomer Johannes Kepler, the spacecraft was launched into an Earth-trailing heliocentric orb ...

, and so the star is also known as Kepler-1. Since the planet transits the star, the star is classified as a planetary transit variable and has received the

variable star designation In astronomy, a variable-star designation is a unique identifier given to variable stars. It extends the Bayer designation format, with an identifying label (as described below) preceding the Latin genitive of the name of the constellation in whic ...

V581 Draconis.

Binary star

In 2008 a study was undertaken of fourteen stars with exoplanets that were originally discovered using the

transit method Methods of detecting exoplanets usually rely on indirect strategies – that is, they do not directly image the planet but deduce its existence from another signal. Any planet is an extremely faint light source compared to its parent star. For e ...

through relatively small telescopes. These systems were re-examined with the 2.2M reflector telescope at the

Calar Alto Observatory The Calar Alto Observatory (Centro Astronómico Hispano en Andalucía or "Spanish Astronomical Centre in Andalusia") is an astronomical observatory located in Almería province in Spain on Calar Alto, a mountain in the Sierra de Los Filabre ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. This star system, along with two others, was determined to be a previously unknown

system. The previously unknown secondary star is a dim

magnitude Magnitude may refer to: Mathematics *Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction *Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object *Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector *Order of ...

15 K-type star separated by about 232 AU from the primary, appearing offset from the primary by about one arc second in the images. This discovery resulted in a significant recalculation of parameters for both the planet and the primary star.

Planetary system

In 2006, the exoplanet

was discovered by the Trans-Atlantic Exoplanet Survey using the

. It was also within the

field of view The field of view (FOV) is the angle, angular extent of the observable world that is visual perception, seen at any given moment. In the case of optical instruments or sensors, it is a solid angle through which a detector is sensitive to elec ...

of the

Kepler Mission The Kepler space telescope is a defunct space telescope launched by NASA in 2009 to discover Earth-sized planets orbiting other stars. Named after astronomer Johannes Kepler, the spacecraft was launched into an Earth-trailing heliocentric orb ...

planet-hunter spacecraft. This system continues to be studied by other projects and the parameters are continuously improved. The planet orbits the primary star. TrES-2b is a

hot Jupiter Hot Jupiters (sometimes called hot Saturns) are a class of gas giant exoplanets that are inferred to be physically similar to Jupiter (i.e. Jupiter analogue, Jupiter analogues) but that have very short orbital periods (). The close proximity to t ...

, with a mass and size similar to those of

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a Jupiter mass, mass more than 2.5 times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined a ...

but an

orbital period The orbital period (also revolution period) is the amount of time a given astronomical object takes to complete one orbit around another object. In astronomy, it usually applies to planets or asteroids orbiting the Sun, moons orbiting planets ...

of only two days. Its orbit is prograde relative to its star's rotation. In 2011, TrES-2b was found to have a very low

albedo Albedo ( ; ) is the fraction of sunlight that is Diffuse reflection, diffusely reflected by a body. It is measured on a scale from 0 (corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation) to 1 (corresponding to a body that reflects ...

, reflecting less than 1 percent of the light from its star, making it the darkest known exoplanet at the time. However, it also emits a significant amount of light because its surface temperature is so hot that it glows red. Due to its close orbit, it is assumed to be

tidally locked Tidal locking between a pair of co-orbiting astronomical bodies occurs when one of the objects reaches a state where there is no longer any net change in its rotation rate over the course of a complete orbit. In the case where a tidally locked ...

to its parent star.

The Kepler mission

In March 2009, NASA launched the Kepler spacecraft. This spacecraft was a dedicated mission to discover extrasolar planets by the

from solar orbit. In April 2009 the project released the first light images from the spacecraft, and TrES-2b was one of two objects highlighted in these images. Although TrES-2b was not the only known exoplanet in the field of view of this spacecraft, it was the only one identified in the first-light images. This object was important for calibration and check-out.

References

External links